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Oracle Goes New School by Launching Own Public Cloud

Oracle Cloud is the full package, complete with Platform Services, Application Services and Social Networking Services.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Oracle, for more than a generation a proponent and defender of the conventional on-premises data center system, is now officially both a cloud-systems and cloud-services provider.

The all-purpose IT products and services provider launched its Oracle Cloud on June 6 before several hundred invited guests (mostly customers, analysts, journalists) and a Webcast audience in a media event on its San Francisco Bay shores campus here.

Oracle Cloud is the full package, complete with Platform Services, Application Services and Social Networking Services. It is up and running now, and you can access it here.

Registration requests currently are being taken for the various subscription-based application services, which include Fusion CRM, Fusion HCM (human capital management), and Oracle Social Network--a response to Salesforce's Chatter.

Further reading

"It's been a long time coming," Oracle CEO and co-founder Larry Ellison told the audience at the launch event. "We made the decision to rebuild all of our applications for the cloud almost seven years ago. We called it 'Project Fusion.' Some of our competitors called it 'Project Con-fusion,' which is memorable. Seven years of work, thousands of people, billions of dollars -- to make the transition from being an on-premise application provider to a cloud application provider."

Why? Because at that time, cloud computing wasn't yet mature, no one knew exactly where it might be going, and it posed a huge threat to Oracle's core business. Times certainly change, and so do attitudes. Oracle's attitude and approach to cloud computing indeed has swung 180 degrees in the last few years as it has joined the pack in pursuit of cloud-related business.

Platform Services in the Oracle Cloud

These include the heavy-duty Oracle database in the form of a secure cloud service, available via monthly subscription. Other Oracle Cloud Platform Services will include:

Analytics Services to allow business users to build and share analytic dashboards and reports through the cloud.

Oracle has been stockpiling business applications over the years for on-premises, server-based deployments, such as Seibel Systems, JD Edwards, Hyperion and PeopleSoft. In the last year or so, however, the company has picked up cloud-ready acquisitions such as Taleo (for its HCM), RightNow (CRM) and Endeca (data management) to add to its new arsenal.